Citizen activist Matthew Frazier has scheduled a news conference at a place that will dramatize his concerns.
He will meet the media and supporters on Tuesday in his own neighborhood, which has drainage problems. He will show the public and the media a sinkhole at his neighbor’s home.
Here is Frazier standing in his neighborhood sinkhole. A show and tell:
Frazier will announce his candidacy for District 6 on the Mobile City Council. The news conference, sinkhole and all, will be at and near 8468 Rester Court at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The media and public are invited.
The District 6 seat is now held by Councilman Josh Wood, who is expected to seek re-election in the August 26 Mobile municipal election.
Frazier provided 1819 News with this statement:
I am Matthew Frazier. I am running for City Council District 6. I have lived in Mobile, AL for 43 years. I grew up in Eight mile for 13 years, then moved to Semmes where I graduated from Mary G. Montgomeryt High School.
I worked at Walley Electric for over 20 years after high school and acquired my Master Electrical License. I have been married for 16 years and have one child.
I have always been a hard-working Christian middle-class family man who still believes in Truth, Justice, and the American way.
Being on the City Council I will bring strong values of the everyday working people. I stand for God, Truth, and family values.
My family and I were annexed into the City in 2023, and I have voiced my concerns on some city issues only to get overlooked. I am taking a stand now to help the regular everyday working citizens of this city, and I believe I can make a difference by being your City Councilman for District 6. I will push for Truth and transparency from our local government as I believe we are owed that.
Some of you may have recently heard that I have taken a stand against our local water company as they have stated Big Creek Lake is permanently closed. I have taken this stand because this lake is our drinking water, and they were not truthful or transparent. I believe we should know exactly what is going on with our drinking water source. They stated that they don't answer to me, the city, the county, or the State. This does not work for me, and it shouldn't work for anyone else either. They should be held accountable for what they have done.
My top priorities for our city are safety, reducing Crime, fixing our storm drainage and sewer infrastructure, and holding our public utilities and officials accountable for their actions by being transparent with the citizens of our community.
Frazier has been in the news this year, leading a citizens’ group trying to reopen Mobile’s Big Creek Lake to boating and fishing.
For decades, people in Mobile fished, boated, and visited Big Creek Lake and graves on the lake property. However, they have been prohibited from doing so since February 5, 2025, and the ban is now permanent. The Mobile Area Water & Sewer System (MAWSS), which has jurisdiction over the lake, said it was susceptible to invasive growth. The lake is the source of drinking water for over 300,000 Mobile-area consumers.
Hundreds of Mobile area citizens have purchased boats, motors and tackle, and use Big Creek Lake as their primary fishing hole.
Frazier and fishing families fought back. He opened the citizen group "Take Back Big Creek Lake from MAWSS." It has held well-attended meetings and traveled to Montgomery for hearings supporting legislation to re-open the lake.
The group posted a Facebook page to organize the efforts. The group now has over 3,200 members.
The stated purpose of Frazier’s group is "holding MAWSS accountable for breaching the public's trust by announcing 'PERMANENTLY' closing a 'PUBLIC' waterway and fencing off Howells Ferry Road, A ROAD THAT WAS PAID FOR BY YOU AND ME."
On February 5 of this year, MAWSS issued a release that said "it will permanently close Big Creek Lake to all recreational boating and fishing, effective immediately. This decision has been made to protect the lake’s primary role as a drinking water source for the community, ensuring its long-term health and safety.”
State Rep. Shane Stringer (R-Citronelle) and State Sen. Jack Williams (R-Semmes) represent the area that includes Big Creek Lake in the state legislature. They both introduced identical bills to prohibit water utilities from closing public lakes to recreation. That legislation has passed favorably out of committees in the House and Senate, but with the regular session winding down, it appears that it will be difficult to get the bills onto the floor for a vote.
Frazier and his group won a round when legal counsel for the Alabama Department of Conservation issued a legal opinion that the lake is public water and cannot be closed by MAWSS or other utilities. MAWSS has not complied with the opinion but instead passed a compromise measure that will seek a vendor to manage boat rentals and limited shore access.
Mobile City Council members appoint the board of directors of MAWSS. If Frazier were to win the District Six council seat, he would get one appointment on the eight-member MAWSS board.
It is not clear at this point whether other citizens seeking to reopen Big Creek Lake will run for the other six city council seats. The deadline to qualify to run for Mobile City Council is June 10.
The forced closure of Big Creek Lake could also be a significant issue in the race for Mayor of Mobile. Incumbent Mayor Sandy Stimpson is not running again, so there is an open seat. One of the mayoral candidates, State Rep. Barbara Drummond (D-Mobile), is the appointed chairman of the MAWSS board. She supported the lake's closure to recreation.
Jim ‘Zig’ Zeigler writes about Alabama’s people, places, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former Alabama Public Service Commissioner and State Auditor. You can reach him for comments at [email protected].
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